Chocolate-Covered Strawberries
by DatCrownedProblemSolver
Summary: A young Halcandran boy named Iro is lonely and depressed near Valentine's Day, but another young human boy named Nooki saves him from his depression. Nooki is a Kirby-based OC who belongs to Eptastic Girl and Iro is my OC, so I suppose it's a OC x OC Valentine's Day special one-shot. Story number seven of seven in my Yaoi Valentine Project. Happy Valentine's Day!


It was a few days before Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day on Dreamland is like every other day, except for a little extra love. That's what Iro thought.

Iro never liked it too much the previous years. They made him feel jealous that other people were loved, rather than him, who wouldn't even get a simple 'hello' each day.

He sat near the hills of Dreamland, sighing sadly as people passed by, holding the hands of their lovers as they walked. His tall, Halcandran ears were down; that meant that he was sad.

He rested his head on his hands, getting even more depressed. He was on the verge of crying. He hated this. He hated himself. He hated life. It was then that he made the decision to finally give up. He held on for too long, and nothing got better. He was a wanted criminal in another world and a nuisance in this one. He got up, wiping his tears away and floating to King Dedede's castle.

* * *

Iro floated through a forest, and it began to rain. He heard a rumble of thunder and stopped. He sighed. _"Great,_" he thought, going to a tall tree and sitting under it's branches. "_Why is my death to be delayed?_"

He rested his head on his hands again as it began to rain harder. The thunderstorm was fierce when it came to it's rain, but not much fierce when it came to anything else.

Those rumbles of thunder were horrible, though.

He tried covering his ears as the thunder rumbled, but it was still too loud. He shook and cried more. He was astraphobic.

* * *

Another young boy was caught in the rain, and he didn't mind it too much. He enjoyed the rain, yet considered going to a safer area; lightning was flashing.

He was soaking wet, yet he didn't seem cold. He looked more like a human than most of the other Dreamlanders, which is odd for them. But he still had powers, and was certainly no weakling. His name was Nooki.

He didn't know that it was going to rain this much, so he didn't even bring a jacket; he just wore a green T-shirt with black pants and brown shoes.

He wiped the hair out of his eyes away; it was hard to see. Perhaps too hard to see. He decided to finally go under a tree and rest until the storm stopped.

He walked towards the same tall tree that Iro was under. He didn't know that Iro was there, and he couldn't hear Iro's sobs until he was directly under the tree.

Iro didn't know that Nooki was there, either, and continued to sob away, wishing for it to stop.

Nooki leaned his back against the tree and was finally able to hear Iro's sobs. He moved around the tree slowly, and he found Iro, curled into a ball on the ground, covering his ears and shaking. Nooki got down to Iro's level and rubbed his head. "Hey...Are you okay?" Nooki asked.

Iro looked up, and his neon green eyes were filled with tears. He was completely embarrassed as well, not knowing that he was crying like an idiotic infant right in front of someone.

Nooki looked at him, and for some reason, he thought that Iro looked quite...adorable.

Iro continued to shake as the thunder went on. "...Yes..." he whispered. He crawled away from Nooki and covered his face away. Nooki followed him.

"...Why are you crying?" Nooki asked, assuming that Iro was scared of thunderstorms, but he wanted to know the actual reason.

"...I don't know," Iro replied, curling himself into a ball again. He tried to stay warm, but it was hard to do so.

"Really?" Nooki asked, sitting down next to Iro.

"...Yes, really," Iro replied. "_Gah! I just made a huge embarrassment of myself! Stupid Iro! Bad Iro!"_

Iro's eyes glanced over at Nooki. When he first looked at him, he considered him handsome. But he didn't want to let any of that information out; he'd already embarrassed himself enough today.

"Are you scared?" Nooki asked.

"...Perhaps I am...B-but I don't know why." Iro closed his eyes tightly as another flash of lighting went up in the sky above him.

"That's okay."

Iro's ears perked up in surprise. No one was ever this accepting of his ridiculous fears before.

He turned around and faced Nooki, crawling closer to him. "...Is it really okay? I'm acting like too much of an idiot."

"No you're not." Nooki touched Iro's cheeks and ran his hands down to Iro's chin. He then wiped away the excess tears from Iro's eyes. "It's okay to be afraid of something. We all are."

"...But I could be so much better than this...I'd be better off dead, perhaps."

Nooki frowned at him. Iro looked up at Nooki's frowning face and immediately regretted making Nooki sad.

Nooki picked Iro up and placed him in his lap. "No, you wouldn't," Nooki said, rubbing Iro's back gently, as if he were an infant. "Think about your family. Do you know how sad they'd be if you were dead?"

"My family wouldn't care," Iro replied. "I lived in an abusive family, so...Yes, they'd think of me as better off dead, too."

Nooki frowned a bit more. "Don't you have any friends?" He asked, rubbing the back of Iro's head, treating him more like a kitten now. _  
_

"No," Iro replied. "See? I have nothing to live for."

"Of course you do."

"No I don't."

Iro acted as if he had a rather serious case of depression. Nooki didn't like that one bit.

Nooki got up and carried Iro in his arms. It really was quite easy to do so due to Iro's size. "...What's your name?" Nooki asked, cradling Iro like a baby. He couldn't help himself; Iro really was too adorable to him.

"...Iro."

Iro secretly liked being carried by Nooki. He felt warm and safe, and his tears went away slowly.

The thunderstorm from before had seemingly went out of the area as well. This put Iro in more ease, and he was able to relax more.

"...Iro. What a pretty name. I'm Nooki."

Iro couldn't help but look at Nooki's handsome face. From what Iro knew, Nooki didn't mind.

"...Nooki," Iro repeated. "...Are you sure I have something to live for?"

"Of course," Nooki said, setting Iro down. He got down to his level again and held onto his hands. "Listen, Iro...You seem like such a nice, sweet little guy. You really could do something nice for this world just by making someone happy with your charm."

"But I'm too depressed to do something good," Iro replied, not noticing that he was holding onto Nooki's hands as well.

"Then overcome that. You have the strength, Iro. You really do."

By now, Iro had stopped crying and didn't seem to be too sad anymore. Nooki was right; Iro did have strength.

"...You're right," Iro said. "...I do have at least some strength in me...Everyone does."

Nooki smiled at him and rubbed his head, making Iro purr like a kitten. He liked listening to Iro's purrs quite a lot.

He stopped rubbing Iro's head after a bit and stood up. "I'm glad that you realize that."

Iro smiled back at him. "Thank you..."

Nooki rubbed Iro's head again, one last time. "I'd like to see you again soon. Until then, please take care of yourself."

"I will," Iro replied. He was secretly glad that Nooki wanted to see him again as well.

Nooki stood up and waved goodbye to Iro. Iro waved back and continued waving until Nooki was out of sight. Once Nooki left, Iro sat down under the tree again, still smiling and holding onto the thought of him having strength.

* * *

A few days later, it was Valentine's Day, and Iro went into a town in Dreamland that was selling Valentine's Day-related goods. He saw a store that was selling chocolate-covered strawberries, and wondered if Nooki would like them.

He decided that he might as well take his chances, and he bought two boxes: one for Nooki, and one for a random passerby on the street.

He carried the two boxes, and he saw an elderly female Cappy walking through. He wondered why he wanted to be nice to her; perhaps he just liked the elderly. He didn't know for sure, and he didn't bother to ask himself.

He floated up to the female Cappy slowly so as not to scare her. "Excuse me," Iro said, floating closer to her. "...I bought two boxes of chocolate-covered strawberries, and I was wondering if you would like one of them."

The Cappy walked over with a smile. "But shouldn't you have bought them for a lover of sorts?" she asked in a cute, sweet-sounding voice.

"The other box is for my...lover, as they say. I bought a second one just to give to a random person," Iro replied, smiling back at her.

"...Well, aren't you a sweet little doll baby?" She asked, pinching Iro's cheek and moving it up and down. "Since you have no use for it, I'll take it."

Iro gave her one of the boxes and held onto the other one for Nooki. "Thank you, dear."

"Oh, you're welcome," Iro replied, waving goodbye to the elderly Cappy.

What Iro didn't know was that Nooki was there with him among the crowd of people walking by. He stopped walking when he noticed Iro and walked over to him. "Iro...?" He said, smiling at him.

"Nooki!" Iro replied, floating over to him quickly. "Happy Valentine's Day!"

Nooki smiled at Iro, glad to see that he was happier today. "Happy Valentine's Day."

Iro smiled back at him nervously. "_Gah! How do I give this to him?_" Iro thought, shaking a bit.

Nooki noticed Iro's shaking and was questioning it. "Iro, are you okay?"

"Hm? Oh! Yes, yes. I'm fine," Iro replied, still questioning how he was going to give Nooki his gift. "Um...Nooki?"

"Yes?" Nooki asked.

"...These are for you." Iro was finally able to look at Nooki normally, but Iro was blushing. His blush only made the multi-colored clothes that he wore fit in more, and it gave more color to his face.

"Iro..."

Nooki went down to Iro's height level and hugged him. "Thank you...I love these."

"Really?" Iro asked, hugging him back. "Well, that's good, because I didn't know for sure."

Iro saw that Nooki was holding a bouquet of roses, and felt somewhat disappointed. He assumed they were for another lover of Nooki's.

Nooki smiled at him and set Iro down from his hug. "...Iro?"

"...Yes?" Iro asked, smiling at Nooki again.

"These roses are for you."

Iro blushed even more and tried to hide his blushing cheeks with his hands. "Goodness...They're for me?" Iro asked. "They look so beautiful..."

Iro knew it. He was in love with Nooki, and wanted to confess it. Yes, they had only knew each other for a few days, but Iro considered it true love, and wondered if Nooki considered it the same way.

"...They look as beautiful as you do, Nooki."

That certainly took Nooki by surprise.

"Iro...Thank you," Nooki said, hugging Iro and then holding him in his arms. Iro still held his rose bouquet.

"...Would you like to...share this day with me?" Iro asked, purring as he was held.

Nooki smiled again due to the happiness of having the opportunity to spend the day with his friend...or would he be something more?

"Of course," Nooki replied. He set Iro down and walked with him, holding his hand. "There's a nice park not too far from here...Would you like to go there?"

"Sure," Iro replied. "I just hope it's not too crowded."

* * *

Author's note time: Valentine's Day is here, and this is the last story of my Yaoi Valentine Project! I'm mostly happy with the results of this project, and I hope you are as well.

Anyways, as for the main premise of this little story here...Me and fellow fanfiction writer Eptastic Girl have these two characters that are in a relationship with each other; these are Iro and Nooki. I own Iro, and Eptastic Girl owns Nooki.

I decided to make this story about them, since Eptastic Girl said she was doing a one-shot about them as well. I made it more about the two of them first meeting each other rather than having them already together since I just wanted to show my take on it.

Also, the reason why it's in the Kirby category is because they are both Kirby-based OCs.

And I suppose that's all I have to say, other than, of course, me not owning the Nooki character. And I do hope that I got his personality right...But, anyways, Happy Valentine's Day!


End file.
